Portal - The Game Articles

After the idea of human testing was brought up, Aperture was never the same. There was much more stress and productivity. I loved it like never before.

Cave was always making these "pre-recorded messages" that he put in the spheres that were made for testing. One day, when I was very busy with something, he told me to "Say goodbye, Caroline" and I stupidly said "Goodbye, Caroline." I blushed as he grinned impishly at me.

Aperture became busier and richer, but something seemed amiss. I felt... different. But that comes along later in my history.

One day, at a meeting, Cave brought up another of his great ideas. He hadn't seemed well for a while, and I was getting worried about him. He had started to babble while making pre-recorded messages, as I could tell from walking by while he was on a rant about "burning houses down with lemons". And I had started to care deeply about him.

I loved him.

"We should make a giant robot that we can stick a human mind and soul in," Cave suggested. "That way, they can live forever!"

I returned to my apartment one day with my hair singed and much shorter than it had originally been at the beginning of the day. But I didn't care, not when I had finally built a robot!

We had worked on it for a year, and it was finished today. It was put on three legs and was shaped like an oval. It was originally meant to shoot out cake, but someone had accidentally switched the cake with bullets.

I got to name it~ after all, it was my birthday~ and I called them turrets. We were working on duplicates, and stash them away until we needed them.

I smiled as I plopped myself down on the couch. Aperture had been great for me. Cave had started giving me more and more opportunities for being great, including inviting me out for dinner once. He didn't make a fuss when I read a science book under the table...

*******************

The next day, when I went to a meeting with Cave, I heard something interesting.

"You know, we should start having humans come and do tests." Cave fiddled his thumbs as his suggestion hung in the air. A woman scientist named Rose looked around. "Well, would they be safe?"

"Bye! Good luck!" cried my friend Lisa as I pulled my car away. "Bye!" I called back to my roommate.

The day was finally here! I was going to an interview for Aperture Science! I felt my hands shake with excitement on the steering wheel. In just a month, I might have a job as a scientist!

I drove to the address the lady on Aperture's phone had told me. A white building stood there, with a sign saying "Aperture Laboratories" above a glass door.

My legs suddenly felt wobbly as I opened the car door and eagerly leapt forward to the building. What if I don't get a job? I asked myself, scared. However, I forced myself to walk up to the glass door.

A tall man with brown hair and brown eyes was standing by the door. "Hello, I'm Cave Johnson," he said, stretching out a hand, "CEO of Aperture Science. Are you Caroline White?" "Um..." I stammered. "Y-yes, I am."

Cave-I mean, Mr. Johnson-led me down a hallway, until we got to a door. He opened it for me and I carefully stepped inside.

As a young girl, I always loved science. While other kids were passing notes under desks, doodling in their textbooks, or just ignoring the teacher, I would be hanging onto every word, my eyes glued to the talker. When they would ask a question, my hand would shoot into the air. Language arts and math never really interested me, but science... glorious science...

I was bullied, too. "Hey, nerd," the nasty kids would sneer. "Was it you who was the idiot who discovered e=mc2?" Then they would push me into the locker and stalk away, laughing.

So my life continued. I went through my stages, going through boyfriends and puberty, but science was still my life. I would study every night for tests that would probably never happen. Most of my boyfriends broke up with me after discovering me reading a science book under the table while on a date or something in those categories.

After only a matter of years, I was graduated from high school. Sadly, I hadn't gotten into any great colleges, thought there were some okay ones willing to take me in because of my phenomenal science grades.